Tag: race for life

Its been a very busy hectic few weeks here, and I am finally able to sit down and concentrate on what’s been happening. I have a few things lined up for you, like my TuTu Tutorial, a give away thanks to the lovely people at Oilatum Junior, plus my usual day to day ramblings.

But before I get to any of that, I want to say a special thank you.

On the 20th June 2015, Emma and I did the Race for Life at Kempton Park. We walked (Emma rode and walked) the 5K course in just over an hour. It was an amazing experience. We did it in matching tutus. At the end of the race, I took Emma out of her trike so she could cross the finish line, and she got a really big cheer and a mention over the loudspeaker. She was so incredibly chuffed; as was I.

Thank you to Cancer Research for paying my entrance fee, and providing a discounted entrance fee for my readers.

Thank you to my lovely husband for his support and driving.

Thank you to my friends and family for their support and donations.

A very special thank you to the anonymous donor who doubled my sponsorship money on the day, with a donation of £250. We raised a total of £525!

We did the Race for Life for Sarah Hardie, a good friend and one of Emma’s honorary aunts and my grandfather Michael Pearce.

We have one month to go before our Race For Life event. We have exceeded our sponsorship target, which is great, but we won’t say no to more donations! So please do donate if you haven’t done so already.

I’ve made Emmas tutu today. I still have to make my one to go with it.

Yes, it’s multicoloured. I chose to do multiple colours to represent the awareness ribbons of cancers that have affected us, as well as our family and friends.

Hodgkins, Cervical, Prostate, Bone and Thyroid cancers. I also put some silver in there to represent awareness for mental health diseases.

Emmas tutu also has 2 black streaks (mine will not as I’ve run out of black tulle!) these are for my grandad Michael and our friend Sarah; two people who we have lost to this awful disease.

I’ll be back with photos of my tutu, and a tutorial to show how I made it as well!

In the meantime, please share and donate, and come down to Kempton Park on June 20th to watch Emma and I do our 5k event.

Thank you Cancer Research UK!
We are now all signed up for Race For Life.

Emma and I will be walking 5k on June 20th at 11am at Kempton Park.

We are raising money for Cancer Research in memory of my Grandfather Michael Anthony Pearce, who passed away on the 25th November 2012 and also my friend Sarah Louise Hardie who passed away on the 10th September 2014.

Cancer Research UK have approved me to give away 20 codes for discounted entry to a Race for Life event.

For 5k and 10k events it is usually £14.99 for adult women and £10 for children.
For the Pretty Muddy event it is usually £19.99 for adult women and £10.00 for girls aged 13-15.

With your code you will save £2 off of your entry fee.

These fees cover the cost of organising and running your event on the day. It does not contribute towards your sponsorship total.

To get one of these codes, just comment below, ensuring you fill in your correct email address in the relevant areas (your personal details will not be published or shared as per the privacy policy on mrsflams.co.uk)

I will select 20 people at random on Sunday the 1st of March and contact those people by email.

This giveaway will be open until 6pm on Sunday 1st of March 2015. Anyone can enter, providing they’re a UK resident.

In November 2012, whilst pregnant with Emma (Flump at the time) I got a call from my aunt saying that my grandfather had been admitted to hospital. They thought he was having a stroke. I left work, went straight to the hospital and straight into resus, to find my grandmother very distressed and my grandfather in a pretty bad way. He was admitted that evening.

For a week I travelled to and from my home in Feltham to the hospital in Woolwich, via my job in London. 6 months pregnant, it was exhausting and stressful and distressing. Eventually my doctor signed me off and demanded I rest.

You see, my grandfather had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a fair number of years beforehand. He delayed treatment (for reasons that still make me seethe in anger, silly gold digging fake wife) and it spread to his bones; a further diagnosis of secondary bone cancer. He started treatment, and it was all going well. Then it wasn’t. Then the hospital admission.
Scans showed that he hadn’t had a stroke, but the Cancer had spread into his skull and was putting pressure on to his brain, which is why his symptoms were similar to a stroke. His liver was enlarged and the doctors couldn’t do anything else. They made him as comfortable as they could. There was talk of a hospice, however, they then decided that it wasn’t the best option. Just after midday on November 25th 2012, my grandfather passed away.

In the few days before he died, I sat at the hospital with him, with my aunt, cousins, siblings, grandmother and his carer. I only ever left to get sleep, shower and food.

On the day he died, my aunt had said that she was going home to make her youngest son some lunch, her exact words were “I’ll be back later dad, I’ve got a pork chop to cook for Jaades lunch”
I don’t think my grandfather was impressed. Within a few minutes later his breathing changed. His blood pressure dropped, his heart rate slowed. The nurse checked him over and asked if we needed the priest called.

The priest came, gave my grandfather his last rites, and prayed for him.

I sat next to him as he took his final breath.

He was surrounded by family.

He was 73.

M.A.Pearce

That was the first time Id ever sat with someone as they died.

I was sad. I was upset. I was angry. Raging in fact. Cancer. Hideous disease.

2 years later (practically) I found myself in the same situation.

I remember the day clearly. We’d gone to the pub to celebrate my husbands birthday in 2011. In she came, very matter of fact, “I might have Cancer”
And we were all, “………”

Treatment started, it was going well. Then it wasn’t. They moved on to the next treatment. I lost count of how many treatments she had. They moved to experimental treatments and she joked that she was probably worth a lot of money now, due to the amount of platinum (I think?) that was probably in her body.

We discovered we were having a baby, and there was talk of stem cell treatment. Id recently lost my grand father. I looked into cord banking, but only a few hospitals do it. I offered up mine/Flumps cord stem cells.

I lost count of how many times she was in hospital, how many times we wanted to visit but it wasn’t a good idea as she was in isolation due to being immunocompromised.

Sadly nothing worked, and each set of treatment failed.

She was due to celebrate her 30th birthday. However she was in hospital. So we went to visit her.

My mum looked after Emma. Daniel met me in London. We got burritos for lunch. Then jumped on the Tube to the hospital.

She was in the ICU, on a ventilator. She’d been moved into a private room since we’d last saw her. It was her birthday. There were party hats and cards on the wall.

There were a lot of machines.

About 4pm, the doctors wanted to speak to her mother and husband. We were about to leave, but as they came out her mother was very distressed. There wasn’t anything else they could do.
Immediately I was transported back in time, 2 years previously.

My husband and I set about to call friends. Handholding, fetching drinks.

Visiting numbers to the room were relaxed, as were visiting hours.

Friends arrived. Family arrived.

Her dad arrived. He drove from the North, getting there in 4 hours. In laws arrived, driving 2 hours from the South.

We talked to her, held her hand, joked with her and each other. Her vitals improved when people spoke to her, when they touched her. She occasionally opened her eyes. She knew we were there.

We said our goodbyes, and on her 30th birthday she passed away. From Cancer.

I remembered how much I despised this disease. My friend was now a widower. At 30. It was unfair. They’d been married less than a year.

S.L.Hardie

I think about her and my grandfather every day. Every. Single. Day.

They are why I’m doing Race For Life this year. If I can raise just a small amount of money which will go towards Cancer research, so that, hopefully, one day, this awful disease will be treatable, and people won’t lose their loved ones to it, then why not. Why the hell not.

I’ll admit it’s not something I was going to do, but then they got in touch with me as a blogger and I wasn’t sure still. I definitely wasn’t running it. I don’t DO running. But I can walk it.

So this summer, I’m doing the Race For Life. With Emma. A 5k walk.
We will be wearing matching tutus, that I’m going to make using the colours of the Cancer awareness ribbons for the types of Cancer that my grandfather and friend had.

So over the next few months, I’ll be sharing more information about Race for Life, as well as tutorials for making the tutus, and posting the details for my fundraising page. Plus there will be other stuff, offers for those wanting to take part and I’ll be sharing on my Facebook page and Twitter account.

Thank you Race for Life for asking me to work with you. I’m looking forward to it.